Darkest Blight
Chapter 2
The next day in the school cafeteria.
The Archer siblings were eating lunch together or rather would have if Ty had even bothered to open the brown paperbag their mom had packed for him. His eyes stared of into nothingness as his lips frowned. His cheek rested in his hand.
Abby looked at him with concern. Ty was usually a very upbeat and optimistic person but when he got sad he could be sad for a long time. Her lips quirked into a smile when she came up with an idea to sheer her brother up. "Hey Ty, guess what I am?" She took four bendy straws, placed two of them under her upper lip (those would look like mandibles) and the other two by her ears (those would look like antennas). She moved her lips a bit so the bendy straws would tap against each other. "I can lift 50 times my own weight. Let's cut some leaf for the colony." Abby talked thru the straws in her mouth.
Ty didn't laugh. He smiled a bit but quickly went back to frowning. Disappointed, Abby put the straws away. "Are you still upset about Naomi?"
"Yeah." Ty sighed.
"Take it from someone that also been recently dumped, your first love does not have to be your only." Abby looked across the cafeteria. She spied her ex-boyfriend Rudy, sitting next to Paige. The blonde girl giggled about something before Rudy eased a piece of meatloaf into her mouth with a fork. Abby shivered in disgust at seeing her former crush being lovey-dovey with her archrival. Seriously, it would have been less uncomfortable seeing him making out with Insectiva!
"Wait. Didn't you say that you dumped him?" Ty asked, puzzled.
"Whatever."
Abby sounded annoyed so Ty decided to drop it. "Well, you and Rudy was different. You two stopped dating cause you had nothing in common. I didn't even get to tell Naomi how I truly felt about her. Because of my stupid double life." Ty mumbled the last sentenced to himself while looking down, absentmindedly fiddling with the hem of his shirt.
He thought back to the first time he saw Naomi. Her unbelievable cuteness had been what first attracted him to her. She had also looked shy and sort of vulnerable, she always walked around with her arms close to her body and spoke very softly. Of course, once he got to know her he found out that her appearance was a cover. Underneath her modesty was a very capable young woman that was very brave when she had to be, like the time they had been trapped in school with that maniac, Dr. Colon. Naomi never hesitated to help him fight of those tapeworms. She just picked up a fire extinguisher and went to work. It was the complete opposite of Ty who only acted confident but secretly was very insecure. Then of course there was Naomi's wonderful personality. She was so kind and loyal. How many second chances had she given him now? Seven? Eight? Why was she even associating with a guy like him? It was pretty obvious he wouldn't make a very good boyfriend if they ever went steady. He remembered the first time he tried to ask her out. He was so nervous he couldn't even talk coherently. If it hadn't been for Naomi taking the words out of his mouth they would never had even started dating. Confronting supervillains never bothered Ty but talking to a girl? Oh no, that's way too scary.
"Tell her."
Ty was abruptly taken out of his daydreaming by his sister's voice. "What?"
"Tell her you're a Grossologist if you think it will help." Abby said.
Ty could barely believe what he was hearing. "But I gave the bureau my word I would never tell anyone."
Abby shrugged. "Do whatever you think will make you happy."
Ty was about to say something when his Grossometer started peeping. He picked it up and held it to his ear like a phone. "Hello…Can't it wait? ...Okay, I'll be there in a second." Ty replied before hanging up.
"What did LabRat want?" Abby asked curious. LabRat tended to call both of them at the same time so she found it odd he would only call Ty.
"It wasn't LabRat. It was Andy." Ty rose out of his seat. "He said he had something to show me in the computer lab."
Abby tilted her head, confused. "Why is he calling you on your Grossometer?"
"Well, I kind of…lost my phone," Ty scratched his neck, "so I made it so all calls to my phone goes directly to my Grossometer."
"Isn't that a bit risky?" Abby asked.
"What? Are you scared someone will hack it?"
"More over that someone will see that big Grossology logo on the back." Abby pointed out.
Ty looked at the G on his Grossometer. "Oh…I guess I better hurry to get a new cellphone then." He put it back in his pocket and turned around. "See ya later, Abby." He said and walked out of the cafeteria.
Having been left all alone, Abby sighed. Abby didn't have any friends of her own so whenever Ty went to hang out with one of his friends she was left alone. She looked at Ty's untouched paperbag with some curiosity. She opened it just to see what their mom had prepared for him. Sloppy Joe. Not the villain, the sandwich. "Junk food. How Typical."
"Abby?"
Startled, Abby immediately threw away the bag. "I wasn't gonna eat it."
She turned to see who had spoken to her. It was Molly, the overweight girl in mint green shirt. Abby knew her from her theater group and while they weren't exactly friends, they were on friendly terms. "Okay." Molly said, somewhat weirded out by Abby's reaction. "A guy asked me to give you this."
Molly handed her a pink card with the text 'TO ABBY' in glitter. Abby raised an eyebrow. It was weird since it wasn't nowhere near Valentine's Day. She unfolded it. The text inside read 'Abby Archer, I have been in love with you since I first saw you. If you want to know who I am meet me under the bleacher in the school gym after lunch.'
"Who gave you this?" Abby asked Molly.
"Oh, he told me not to tell you his name or what he looked like. He said he wanted it to be a secret." The overweight girl answered, smiling.
Abby glanced over at Paige and Rudy, still flirting with one another. She wondered if it was Paige that did this as part of some plot to humiliate her. She wouldn't put it past the harpy to do something like this but then again, it was lunch and they were sitting here, not in the gym where the card said she should be. Even Paige's mindless cronies were here, patiently waiting for their leader to boss them around. It didn't seem probable that it was some scheme to humiliate her. "You know what? Screw Rudy. I'm gonna go see who it is. Can't hurt."
"You go, girl." Molly exclaimed.
Ty stepped into the computer lab, closing the door after him. The first thing he noticed in room was a small robot that crawled up to him. The robot looked like a silvery centipede with one large red eye in the middle of its head. Its body was around 20cm long. It seemed to study him with that one large eye.
"Hey Ty. How do you like my new Robot? I call him Sentry-Pede." Andy said as he sat on a spinning chair by one of the many computers.
Ty looked down at the silvery robot again. His lips quirked a bit. "Nice."
"Yeah, I've built him to investigate places that are too cramped or too dangerous for humans. You know, like caves or animal dens."
"And knowing you, he will probably also be used to look up the skirts of girls." Ty joked.
Andy blushed and tried not to giggle. "Yeah." He cleared his throat. "I have also been experimenting a bit with transforming technology."
"Transforming?" Ty sounded perplexed.
"Yeah, look." Andy spun in his chair and clicked a button on the keyboard.
Ty looked at Sentry-Pede as the robot's body parts started to retract and fold in on themselves. Once the process was done, the centipede like robot had turned into an almost perfects sphere. Its red eye still visible. "Impressive." The mechanical ball made a few playful rolls. It then transformed back to its centipede like state.
"It can also do this." Andy said and clicked another button.
The Sentry-Pede laid flat down on its stomach and then its mechanical legs started connecting with one another and locked themselves in place. They had now turned into tracks, like on a tank.
"Nice job, Andy." Ty congratulated, genuinely smiling.
"Yeah, it's Sentry-Pede's fastest mode." The Sentry-Pede speed-up to a wall and just when Ty thought it was going to stop, it instead accelerated and hurried up the wall. It was like seeing a real bug crawling up a wall, just robotic. It reminded Ty a bit about his own creation, the Ty-Mobile.
"So this was what you wanted me to see? It's really cool Andy, certain to win the next science fair." Ty proclaimed.
Andy frowned a bit. "Oh, Sentry-Pede has been functioning for months. I tried to tell you but you have apparently been waaay too busy lately."
"Sorry about that, it's just that I have had a lot to do." Ty admitted with a certain degree of shame.
"It's okay." Andy sighed.
"So what was it you wanted to show me?" Ty asked.
"I'll show you but first I need you to spit into this cup." Andy handed him a small plastic cup. Ty gave his friend a questioning look but then decided to spit in it anyway. He handed it back to Andy who then proceeded to sticking a cotton swab into the cup, spinning it around a bit to make sure Ty's saliva got stuck to it. Once again, Ty raised an eyebrow. "Sentry-Pede, come here." On his creators order, Sentry-Pede crawled up Andy. Andy then clicked a small button on the Sentry-Pede's head and small square-shaped device ejected from a slut on top of the head. Andy placed the cotton swab in small hole in the device and stroked off the spit. "Yeah, I've been trying to redesign this but for the moment it will do." He stuck the little box back into Sentry-Pede's head. "Okay Sentry-Pede, activate Bio-Vision."
"Bio-Vision?" Ty asked puzzled.
"Yeah, check it." Andy handed Ty his laptop. Thru it, Ty could see all that Sentry-Pede saw but there was more. Here and there, the screen was red. Both in the air and on the floor, like a strange shimmer. To the side were also stats of DNA. Ty's DNA to be precise. "This new scanner I have developed can analyze DNA from any source and cross-reference it to any DNA in its library. It's still in the development phase but can you imagine what this can do for forensics? No risk for contaminating the evidence and it will make founding missing kids a piece of cakes."
'Bloodhounds would probably be cheaper.' Ty thought but decided not to spoil his friend's good mood. Besides, he was genuinely impressed with what Andy had created. "It's all really great, Andy."
"Yeah, I'm pretty impressed myself." Andy said and picked Sentry-Pede off the floor. He placed the little robot on the table and turned it off before tinkering on him with a screwdriver. Then he looked back at Ty with a cheesy grin, biting a bit at his lower lip.
Ty felt a bit awkward. "What?"
"You said you and Naomi had a date last night. So how did it go? Did you two finally…" Andy made some kissing-motions with his lips.
"Naomi isn't talking to me anymore." Ty sighed in response.
Andy's smile faded. "Really? That bad?"
Ty nodded.
"Well, what happened?"
"Well, I kind of," Ty scratched his neck, "I missed the date."
Andy's eyes almost grew bigger than his glasses. "Ho-how does that even happen?"
"I-I had to do something." Ty said but Andy simply raised an eyebrow at it. "I had choirs at home."
Andy scowled and rolled his eyes. "Sure you did."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Ty sounded a tad offended.
"Come on Ty, I'm your best friend, well except for Abby. I know when you're not being honest. You pull the same routine with whenever you want to avoid me." Andy exclaimed.
Ty felt genuinely hurt by what he said. Sure, it was true that he had been lying to Andy as well many other friends and loved ones but it still hurt to know that his best friend didn't trust him. "Andy, it isn't so that I don't want to spend time with Naomi, or you for that matter but I have other responsibilities."
"Ty," Andy sighed, "I don't care if you're lying to me. Really, I'm okay with it. You might even have a good reason for lying. Naomi thou is another story. I mean, even I can see that she likes you so feeling like she can't trust you probably hurts a lot."
"So, what should I do?" Ty asked.
Andy shrugged. "I don't know. What do you want to do?"
Ty found himself thinking about Naomi again. He thought about when she, either accidentally or purposefully, touched his skin. It felt like heaven. He thought about the way her eyes glimmered when she looked at him. Even during some of Ty's near-death-experiences (he had had more that most boys at his age) he had thought about her, dreading he would never see her again or tell her how he truly felt. It was obvious what he wanted.
"You don't happen to know where Naomi is right now." Ty asked.
"Last I saw her was in the library." Andy replied, more invested in tinkering with his robot at the moment.
"Thank you." Ty exclaimed and ran off.
When Abby got to the gym she was a bit disappointed to see that it was filled with people. The boys' basketball team was training. The bleacher was also occupied with teammates who didn't play at the moment as well as friends and girlfriends who had come to show their support as well as kids that just wanted somewhere to sit. She had hoped to be alone.
Then she remembered that the note said to meet him under the bleacher so she would probably not have any problem singling him out. She moved across gym hall without anyone paying her any attention before going behind the bleachers. She looked around the shadows for any human figure.
"Hello, anyone here. I got your card." When Abby said that she started to wonder why she was even here. Curiosity? Hope to kindle a new romance? Maybe she just wanted to forget about stupid Rudy and even stupider Paige.
"Oh Abby, I'm happy you came…alone." The voice was strangely familiar to Abby but she couldn't quite recognize it. She saw the silhouette of a teenager as he leaned against one of the support beams, hidden in the shadows.
Abby squinted her eyes, trying to peer thru the darkness. "Who are you?"
The person in question pushed himself from the beam and stepped into the dim light.
Abby gasped. "KID ROT!"
"Oh thank god." Kid Rot sighed in relief. "You're finally using my real name instead of the…C-word."
"What are you doing here?" Abby asked in an acidic tone, her eyes aflame with rage.
"For the only reason a guy like me would be in a dump like this." Kid Rot replied and got closer to her. "For you."
Abby felt a disgusting tug in her stomach, like she had swallowed something toxic. She could feel Kid Rot undressing her with his blood red eyes as he smiled with that smug, manic grin. "Get out of here Kid Rot." It was almost like a command.
Kid Rot frowned for a second but his smile soon came back. "Awe come on babe, don't be like that." He reached out a heart-shaped box of chocolate to her. "I got you chocolate. Your favorite."
Frustrated, Abby slapped the red box out of Kid Rot's hands and once it hit the floor it spilled chocolate all over the floor. Kid Rot got annoyed. "Hey, do you have any idea how much money I saved by stealing that?"
"Leave. Me. Alone!" Abby shouted at him before turning to walk away but Kid Rot grabbed her wrist.
"You know I can't let you leave." He pressed himself closer to her, uncomfortable close.
Abby glanced over her shoulder, staring right into the parasite's eyes. There was no humanity to be found in those hellish irises. Only depravity. She wanted nothing more at the moment than him stop staring. She spun around and punched him hard in the face.
Kid Rot stumbled backwards but managed to keep his balance. He chuckled a bit. "Still, feisty. I like that," he rose up, "but you are forgetting something baby. We are not alone." Kid Rot raised his left arm up, pressing two fingers against the bleacher wood. "While I know you have no friends in this rotten place, I also know that you wouldn't want anyone to get hurt." Rot started spreading from his fingers, infecting the wooden bleachers. Abby could hear the wood squeaking as it started to give way to the weight of the people that sat on it. Kid Rot smirked. "I'm a dirty bomb Abby. Do you really want to set me off?" The bleachers started rotting even faster and the squeaking became lauder. "Come with me Abby or your entire school will learn the meaning of RotNRoll!"
"NO!" Abby shouted and grabbed his arm with both her hands. "I'll come with you. Just don't hurt anybody else."
Kid Rot turned off his powers and lowered the arm Abby was still holding onto. He stared right into her eyes. The two were so close now, standing chest to chest with their faces only inches apart. He felt a need to kiss her but for once Kid Rot restrained himself. If only he could wait a little longer it would feel so much more satisfying when their lips finally touched for the first time. He cupped her right cheek, stroking his thumb across her soft skin and placed her other hand on the small of her back.
He leaned in a bit closer. "I will enjoy your company for the rest of our lives."
Abby remained still as she could feel Kid Rot's hands touch her. She was disgusted but despite the danger she was less scared than she let on. Abby was already planning her escape. She reached down her back pocket, found her grossometer and pressed a button.
At the same time….
Ty's mind raced almost as fast his legs as he ran thru the school corridor, towards the library. If only he could make Naomi forgive him, maybe he could find a way to balance his love life with his career as a Grossologist. Maybe he could convince Abby to take on more solo missions or maybe he could convince The Director to hire more Grossologists or… something. Ty had learned that all problems had a solution.
He reached the library and immediately spotted Naomi as she sat at one of the tables, reading a book. Next to her was her two best friends, Lola and Willow.
Lola had dark skin with cute freckles under her eyes and her hair was tied up into two puffs. From what Ty could tell, Lola was the most dominating of the three but she was far from the tyrant Paige was in her trio of blonds.
Willow was the shortest in the group. She had a face that reminded Ty a bit of a gopher. She wore a sky blue summer dress over a yellow shirt. Most of her wild hair was branded into a ponytail. Ty knew Willow could be a bit airheaded but Naomi liked her so she couldn't be all bad.
Ty could feel his anxiety rising in cadence with his insecurity. 'What if she hates me now? What if she never want to talk to me-NO?' Ty shook his head, trying to clear his head of all these negative thoughts. He took a deep breath and told himself everything was going to go great.
He walked up to her. "He-Hey Naomi."
Naomi looked up at him with an icy glare in her eyes. She then turned back to her book. "What do you want, Ty?" She sounded so harsh and cold. Not at all the way Naomi's voice usually sounded in Ty's ears.
"I wanted to-
First then did Ty notice the stares Naomi's friends where giving him. Well, it was mostly Lola that did the staring. Willow stared at him for maybe two seconds, then she saw something else that was interesting and looked at that instead. Lola's stare was not exactly scary (she was a bit too cute for that) but Ty could recognize the scorn in those big eyes. "Um, do you think we could talk in private?"
"Do you really think Naomi wants to talk to you after the way you treated her?" Lola spat and rose from her seat.
"Actually Lola, maybe its best you and Willow left. Our next class starts in just ten minutes." Naomi said, hoping to abbreviate the situation.
"Naomi, you can't possible considering forgiving this-
"Lola!" Naomi raised her voice.
Lola was a bit taken aback by her friend's tone. She then stared daggers at Ty before giving up up with a sigh. "Fine. See you in art class." Lola headed out of the library with Willow following but before Lola exited the room she turned and looked right at Ty. She pointed at herself before pointing at him in that 'I got my eyes on you' sign before disappearing thru the exit.
Willow stopped and gave Ty the same sign but when she left she accidentally walked right into a window. She wobbled around like a broken toy before shaking her head to come to her senses (well, as much as Willow could) and then frolicked out of the library.
With them gone, Ty turned to Naomi. "Naomi, I want to apologize for my recent behavior and to ask if maybe you can give me another chance." His nervousness clearly came out in the way he spoke but there was a glint of hope in his eyes.
Naomi didn't see it thou. She abruptly rose from his chair, eyes tightly shut. "Why did you stand me up, Ty?" First when she had asked him that did she looked at him. Despite her harsh tone, Ty could see the sadness in her eyes. There were anger there too but mostly sadness.
Ty blinked a few times, not sure how to answer. "There was something I had to do."
"What?" Naomi spat.
Ty faced away from her, feeling ashamed. "I can't tell you." He looked at her again. "It was something important."
Naomi arced an eyebrow. "More important than me?"
"Yes. No. I mean…It's complicated." Words were failing him, miserable.
Naomi's angry façade was now breaking down, revealing the pain that laid beneath. "Ty, you-we can't be doing this anymore. I feel like I don't even know who you are."
'I feel like I don't even know who you are.' Ty didn't know why but for some reason those words felt like a knife to the heart. "Please Naomi, I promise things will be different this time. I'll make it work." He placed his hands on her shoulders, flashing her his hopeful smile. "I promise."
Naomi stared right at Ty, the boy she had been in love with for so long. It pained her cause she still loved him. "I-I'm sorry, Ty. I don't want this anymore." She pushed herself away from Ty and ran further into library, covering her eyes with her hands.
Ty just stood there. Heartbroken, yet again.
Before he could linger on that thou, his Grossometer rang but it wasn't its usual signal. It was however a signal Ty had been trained to react to. It was a feature LabRat had installed. It was designed to be used in situations when a Grosslogist can't use her voice to call for help. It was as clear as an SOS and could only mean one thing. Abby was in serious danger.
Ty started running as fast as he could to the nearest janitor closet to change into his Grossology outfit.
Meanwhile, Naomi had retreated deeper into the school library. She didn't want to go to class or talk to anyone or see her friends' concerned faces. No, not now. She grabbed a random book and then found a corner in-between a wall and a shelf. Naomi sat down and pretended to read the book when in actuality she just spilled her tears on the pages.
Abby and Kid Rot walked thru the school corridor. Kid Rot's hand was gripping her hand, hard. Abby wondered why Kid Rot didn't just ghost them out of the building. She knew he could walk thru solid objects. Maybe he couldn't do it with another person tagging along or maybe he could only ghost thru organic matter. Perhaps he wanted them to go hand in hand thru the corridor with all these people watching. Something that would look romantic.
Students on both sides of the hallways started staring at them as they came walking by. The students started chatting between themselves. While some was curious about Abby seemingly having a new romance, others were weirded out by Kid Rot's disturbing complexion.
'Please go away, all of you. You're in terrible danger when you're near him.' Abby thought worried.
Paige and her cronies was among the students that saw them. "OMG. Abby already has a new boyfriend. What a hussy." Paige mocked and her friends giggled. Paige then picked up her cellphone and took a picture of the couple. "And he is so her type. Ugly like a living dump heap."
Kid Rot stopped in his tracks and scowled angrily at Paige. He raised a hand at her direction and his hand ignited with dark energy. Paige's clothes decomposed and left her in only her underwear. The blond girl shrieked and ran off with her arms over her chest. Her cronies then ran after her.
"Kid, you said you wouldn't hurt anyone if I-
Kid Rot slapped Abby in the face before she could finish her sentence. It wasn't as harsh as the superhuman parasite could have hit her but it hurt enough to silence her. "I will keep my promise but I won't let them mock me either." Kid Rot stated.
Nicole, a Latina wearing a sleeveless shirt too small to cover her bellybutton, golden bracelets and a pink sunhat walked up to them. "Hey, you can't treat a girl like that!"
Kid Rot scowled at her. He hated being told what to do. He fired a blast of rot-energy which struck Nicole's hat off her head and it rotted. Nicole become petrified by fear. The parasite then turned to the other students. "Anyone else who has something to tell me?"
The other teenagers either shook their heads or slowly backed off. Kid Rot grabbed Abby by the arm and proceeded to drag her to the school exit. "Kid, not so hard!" Abby exclaimed, feeling Kid Rot's nails digging into her wrist.
The two got out of the building but once they got onto the school yard Kid Rot stopped. He looked around, like his eyes were searching for something. He seemed more annoyed than usual. He then turned to Abby. "Where is your lesser half?"
Abby tilted her head, confused by the question. Suddenly, Kid Rot heard a swooshing sound cutting thru the air. He turned towards the sound right before an orange blur grabbed him by his polyester shirt, flew him up into the air and away from Abby.
The orange blur was of course Ty on his jetpack. He took Kid Rot high up into the air before punching him across the face, letting him fall. Ty was usually not this violent but no one freaking touched his sister and got away with it (plus, he was having a shitty week). He followed the falling parasite and kicked Kid Rot hard in the chest to speed up the fall. When Kid Rot hit the ground he did so in a whirl of dust and debris. Ty landed between Kid Rot and Abby, retracting his wings. He looked at his sister. "You okay?"
"I am, thanks." Abby gave a thumbs up.
"Go, get to safety…and come back with help." Ty said. Of course what he really meant was 'find some place to change into your Grossologist uniform and come back to help me'. He knew he couldn't defeat Kid Rot by himself.
Abby nodded before running away.
Despite the pain (something the parasite wasn't used to) Kid Rot rose onto his feet and snickered maliciously at Ty. "Well, isn't it the Grossologist runt. I have to say, I didn't think you'd have the balls to actually punch me. I thought your sister was the one wearing the jewels in the family."
"Don't start with me Kid Rot, I am not in the mood." Ty responded and aimed his goopshooter at the parasite. "Now, surrender and come with me to the gaglab. Maybe we can finally cure you."
Kid Rot chuckled. "Your bureau couldn't keep Chester contained, how do you think it could contain me?"
He fired rot-blasts right at Ty but instead decomposed a pair of bushes when Ty jumped out of the way. Ty fired his goopshooter at his opponent. Kid Rot raised his hand ready to rot it just like he did the last time this happened but instead it hit him right in the face blinding him. "What the Rot is this?" The parasite growled and ripped the goop off his face.
"Don't underestimate us Kid. We Grossologists have grown wise to your tricks by now. There isn't an ounce of organic matter in this goopshooter for you to rot." Ty replied.
Kid Rot smirked. "Okay then." He disappeared into the ground before emerging behind Ty, grabbed him by his backpack and threw him across the schoolyard. "I guess I'll have to do with simple ripping the flesh of your bones."
Ty got onto his hands and knees. It hadn't been a pleasant decent to the ground. "Oh, gravity. Why do you hate me so?" Ty lamented groggily and stood up. People started to gather around the combatants. Curious as to how the fight would go down. "Everyone, get away from here! It isn't safe!" Ty shouted.
"What is it runt? Not want your classmates to see you lose?" Kid Rot ran right at Ty. Ty fired his goopshooter at his opponent but Kid Rot avoided every blast, got right in front of Ty to grab him but Ty sidestepped out of the way and then drove his knee right up Kid Rot's abdomen.
Kid Rot stumbled backwards, clutching his hurt area. He scowled at his opponent. God, he hated that smirk on Ty's face so much. Kid Rot ignited with dark energy and leaped at Ty. Ty activated his jetpack, trying to fly off but Kid Rot got a grip of one of his angels and threw Ty to the ground with a violent crash, breaking one of the jetpack's wings.
'Please Abby, hurry.' Ty thought, knowing he couldn't hold this super-powered psycho off for much longer.
Naomi still sat in her little corner of the library. She had stopped crying now and felt a bit better. She knew she had to be late for class by now but for once she didn't mind. It had felt good to let her emotions flow instead of showing up to class with a sad face and have everyone ask a bunch of stupid questions about how she was feeling.
Just as she was about to get up she heard the exit door open (not the one at the entrance but the one at the back of the library, leading outdoors) and she saw Abby storming in. Normally, Naomi wouldn't mind seeing Abby but not today. Before Abby could see her, Naomi hide behind one of the bookshelves. The younger girl thought that Abby was there to argue on her brother's behalf, something Naomi would rather avoid.
From an opening in the series of books, Naomi observed Abby but the redhead seemed oblivious to Naomi's presence in the room. Abby turned her head from side to side, surveying the library for people. Naomi prayed Abby would simple figure she had gone to class and simple leave rather that keep searching the library.
Abby did neither. Instead, she picked up a green little plastic device that Naomi had never seen before. Was that a cellphone? Nah, it looked too big. "LabRat, we have a serious situation here." Abby spoke into the device. From Naomi's position, she couldn't see the screen or the person Abby was talking too. "Kid Rot attacked me. Here! In school!" Abby exclaimed anxiously.
'LabRat? Kid Rot?' Naomi had never heard those names before. What was Abby talking about?
"Whow, not good." A male voice coming from the device responded.
"Yeah, Ty is keeping him busy right now while waiting for my backup. Any idea how we can stop this maniac?"
"I'll work on something. I'll keep you posted if I'll find any solutions." The voice replied before Abby hung up and placed the device back in her pocket.
What happened next would shock Naomi to her core.
Abby changed from her usual attire to a yellow two-part spandex suit with a familiar black G on the chest. Naomi had seen the suit before. It was a slimesuit, the uniform for the Grossologists.
'Abby is a Grossologist!' The realization hit her like a wrecking ball.
The rational part of Naomi's brain tried to deny it. Abby couldn't be a Grossologist, she was a normal teenage girl just like her! But after the initial shock it all made sense to her. Of course Abby was a Grossologist. She's the girl that thinks spiders are cuter than puppies and she and Ty disappears from school all the time. Wait! Does that mean Ty is a Grossologist too? He would certainly fit the bill. Wait, what did Abby just say Ty was doing? Keeping Kid Rot busy? Was Ty fighting someone?
Without knowing that someone had seen her, Abby ran out the same way she came.
Naomi stepped out from where she had been hiding. For a moment she considered ignoring what she had just seen, go on with her life and pretend like nothing had changed but curiosity overtook her and she decided to tail the Grossologist.
Kid Rot had pinned Ty to the ground and was reaching for his face but Ty was holding him back by the wrists. "Feel the rot hero, feel the rot." Kid Rot hissed as his fingers stretched for Ty's face.
"Get off him, Kid!"
Kid Rot turned to the familiar voice and saw Abby, aiming her goopshooter at him. Kid Rot loved seeing his beloved dressed in that really, really tight outfit. "Abby…" He whispered to himself. Temporarily distracted, Kid Rot unintentionally eased his grip of Ty and the Grossologist took the advantage. He rammed his knee up Kid Rot's crotch. "OUCH!" Kid Rot screamed and fell over on his side, clutching his sore spot.
"Ha! Who has the family jewels now, Kid?" Ty mocked as he rolled out of the way and got onto his feet.
"Ugh…I hate this human body." Kid Rot whined as he tried to stand up. Although once he was on his feet he was hit in the chest by a goopblast from Abby. "Hey!" He ripped it off himself. Then he was hit by Ty's goopshooter, then by Abby again, then by Ty again. The Grossologists peppered him mercilessly with goop until he was trapped in a column of slime which quickly crystalized. Kid Rot squirmed a bit but realized he was stuck (for the moment).
Unbeknown to the heroes and villain, Naomi had been observing them from a safe distance. Now that she knew that the female Grossologist was Abby, it was easy to tell that the other one was Ty. Her adorkable Ty. She felt kind of stupid for not having seen it before.
"Nice going partner." Ty complimented.
"You weren't too bad yourself." Abby said and the two bumped fists.
Kid Rot hung his head, seemingly in defeat but then surprisingly started laughing.
Ty blinked confused. "Um, what you laughing about? We beat you."
Kid Rot lifted his head, revealing a most sadistic smirk. "Naive little heroes. I didn't have to beat you. I just had to wait for you to do what you always do. Uniting."
"Look up there." One of the students shouted. Ty and Abby looked up and saw a brownish fog roll in from the school's roof. Within seconds it had swelled into the sky above them. A globe-shaped shadow hovered in the center of the stratus cloud.
Two bombs fell from the shadow and exploded right in front of the Archer siblings, releasing noxious gas that enveloped the Grossologists as well as a big portion of the school yard. Many of the students screamed in fear and disgust as they ran away from the gas but Ty & Abby was in the center of the mist. Their lungs filled with the toxins and they started to cough and suffocate. Their eyes stung from the smoke.
Ty took off his backpack and rooted around until he found a gasmask. Sadly there were only one and by the way his sister stumbled around, coughing and looker weaker by the second he guessed she wasn't having one of her own. Of course neither had been prepared for this kind of attack. Ty decided it was better to save his sister rather than himself. He reached out the gasmask to Abby. "Abby, *cough* take this."
Suddenly, a mechanical tendril broke thru the smokescreen from above and crushed the gasmask with its scissor like claws. Ty gasped just before a second tendril came down and wrapped itself around Ty like a mechanical python. The metallic tendril then lifted Ty out of the smoke and right to the orchestrator of this ambush.
"Fartor!" Ty exclaimed.
"Out of the smoke, into the flame, eh." Fartor chuckled at his own rhetoric. "Seriously thou. I am sorry for attacking you on your private time. It's very unprofessional of me I know, but my latest plan is too important to have you two running around, spoiling everything. Plus, Kid Rot has this obsession with your sister and he won't help me unless I get Abby for him. I don't understand his deal with that but who am I to stand in the way of true love."
Before Ty could reply to that, one of Fartor's tendrils sprayed him with gas and the Grossologist blacked out.
Meanwhile on the ground. Abby was pretty much blind in the noxious mist as she coughed more violently and stumbled clumsily in search of her brother. Suddenly, she felt a strong arm wrap around her stomach and a hand was placed over her mouth. The hand smelled like rancid meat and it made her feel dizzy.
Next, Kid Rot leaned into Abby's ear and whispered, "Dream of me sleeping beauty. Dream of me." Abby lost consciousness. Kid Rot let her slip out of his arms and fall onto the ground.
The smokescreen evaporated and Fartor descended from the sky before dropping Ty on top of Abby. Everyone that had stayed to witness the outcome was in awe at seeing that the good guys had lost but none of them where as horrified by the sight as Naomi.
Kid Rot thou found everyone's shocked faces amusing and decided to stroke his ego a bit. He walked over his defeated enemies with certain swank in his steps. "That's right people, your town's greatest heroes have fallen like flies. There were never anything special about them, they are just atypical outcasts but you people, you should feel lucky because you had the privilege to witness humanities first line of defense against freaks like us crumble at our awesome might. This was only our first strike and once we are done you will remember where you stood the day this world came to an end."
"Okay Kid Rot, I like your enthusiasm but I think it's time we retreat back to our secret lair so we can prepare the next step of our evil plan. You know, going silent but deadly for a while." Fartor exclaimed.
Kid Rot rolled his eyes a bit. "Alright Mr. F. Gas us out of here." He picked Abby up, bridal style. Fartor's clawed tendril lifted Ty up by the shirt color. The methane-breather then smashed another smoke bomb against the ground.
The last thing Naomi saw before the smoke engulfed both Grossologists and criminals was Ty's face. Overcome by an instinct she couldn't remember feeling before, Naomi ran as fast as she could towards the smoke, ready to do anything to save her Ty. However, once she got inside the smoke she was practically blinded by the gas and she started coughing.
When the smoke cleared, only Naomi was left. The Archer siblings, Kid Rot and Fartor where all gone. Naomi felt like her entire world had been shattered. Within less than half an hour she had broken up with the boy she loved, found out the Archers were Grossologists and now it seemed she would never see Ty again.
Author's Note:
So, how was that for a second chapter?
Maybe it got a bit too schmaltzy with all the romantic stuff but it was kind of by design that Ty & Abby would have meetings with their "love interests" at the same time. Plus, I love the irony of sweet, charming Ty being rejected by his girl while evil, creepy Kid Rot succeeded in making Abby come with him. Anyway, if you didn't care much for the love-dovey stuff don't worry, the upcoming chapters will be much more adventurous.
I am still trying to get the hang on writing Andy's character. He was one of my favorites in the show but I don't have much experience writing his character so I am struggling a bit with keeping him in character.
I do admit that having Abby change into her slimesuit in the library where Naomi could see her is a bit… meh. I couldn't really find a smarter way for Naomi to find out. I know that in the show we always see Ty & Abby put on their uniforms on their way into the gaglab. Although, we have seen them change from their slimesuits to their regular clothes without going to the gaglab so yeah, I will say they are carrying their slimesuits with them all the time, why not? BTW, am I the only one that finds it a tad weird that the gaglab is under Ty & Abby's school and the only way in seems to be thru their lockers? I mean, what if the villains strikes on a weekend when the school is closed? Yeah, I know it's a cartoon but it's kind of fun to think of how impractical this is.
Now, about the entire Abby/Rudy thing. Season 2 hinted on that the two started dating. In my story they dated for a couple of weeks before breaking up. It's not that I dislike Rudy, it's more that I know nothing about him. The series never really gave him a personality or gave a reason as to why Abby liked him. So his appearance here is more or less just to clarify that they are not a couple anymore.
As usual I appreciate it if you would review this chapter and favorite & follow this story. See you next time.